Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech sparks outrage among MMA fans

In the early part of this century, when mixed martial arts was banned from cable television and fighting to escape a barbaric image encapsulated by Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) depiction of it as “human cockfighting,” the sport was literally kept alive by hard-core fans posting news on the internet.

Those fans were out in force on Sunday after actress Meryl Streep kinda, sorta dissed the sport during her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes for winning the Lifetime Achievement award.

As she was discussing diversity, Streep said, “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”

That was all it took to spark outrage.

Bellator president Scott Coker is a long-time martial artist and one of the most respected voices in the sport. He wasted little time in responding to Streep, Coker invited the three-time Academy Award winner to Bellator 170 on Jan. 21 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., so that she’d better understand the nature of it.

No response yet, from Streep, whose speech also raised the ire of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Not all involved in MMA were outraged by Streep’s comments. Rosi Sexton, an osteopathic physician and a former UFC fighter who retired in 2014, took to Twitter to make sense of Streep’s words.

She didn’t seem to have a problem with Streep’s opinion.

And current UFC women’s bantamweight contender Lauren Murphy did her best to calm the outrage with a tweet that hit the nail on the head.

Former UFC fighter Julie Kedzie, who is now the matchmaker for the all-women’s promotion Invicta, didn’t seem too upset, though she disagreed with Streep’s characterization. A frequent critic of President-elect Trump on Twitter, Kedzie put out two tweets that summarized the issue well.

No word on if Streep will be cageside for Bellator 170 when UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz, in his final fight, faces Chael Sonnen.